(NEW) Blink Add-On Sync Module 2

It seems like the makers of the Blink Sync Module they don't actually want you to use it! They REALLY want you to put all of your video clips "in the cloud" (and pay them a monthly fee) instead of just storing your clips yourself. And from the way this is designed, it shows. I bought a few blink cameras because I had some stuff stolen out of my yard and wanted a deterrent/monitoring system just in case it ever happens again. Given the choice of paying Amazon a monthly fee to store my video clips in "the cloud" or to just keep them on a USB drive at my house for a one-time fee, I chose the local option. Hence, I bought the Sync Module and a USB thumb drive. My frustration with this product really begins with the way the app tries to hard-sell the cloud storage even though the whole reason I paid extra money for the Sync Module to begin with is to avoid cloud storage, which seems like the main benefit of the Sync Module. When you open the app, even if you have a Sync Module with a USB plugged into it, it defaults to a screen that informs you that there are no video clips saved because you're not paying Amazon for cloud storage. Only when you tap another tab will it allow you to access your locally-saved clips. Now, wouldn't it make sense from a user experience perspective to make the local clips tab pop up by default if you have a Sync Module with a USB inserted and that's where you've chosen to store your clips? Yes, but I guess then you would have one less daily reminder that Amazon wants MORE of your money to operate a product you ALREADY PAID FOR. So, moving along to annoyance #2: when you go to load a video clip that's saved locally, you have to sit there and wait for it to churn and churn before it will not load. Not too long, granted. But just long enough for Amazon to remind you that if you pay a monthly fee for cloud storage it'll work faster! Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. For those of you who haven't figured this out yet, there is no cloud; you're just storing files on someone else's computer instead of your own. So can someone explain to me how it takes more time to load and transmit a file from the Sync Module that's five feet away from me via my own in-home Wifi, than it does to load and transmit that same file from some data center in Idaho or some other place thousands of miles away from me? The only explanation I've come up with so far is that Amazon needs those extra few seconds to show me a screen reminding me (in case I missed it!) that I can sign up for cloud storage. And as if that wasn't bad enough, here's the worst part: the dang thing doesn't even work half the time. Every month or two, it will just corrupt my USB drive storage and stop saving clips. I'll have to remove the thumb drive, plug it into a PC to repair it, and then plug it back into the Sync Module. As far as I can tell, I'm not doing anything to cause this; the Sync Module sits in its little corner untouched except for when this happens. But, of course, here's yet another problem that could be "solved" by...you guessed it...paying a monthly fee for cloud storage. Amazon markets this product as a way to avoid the extra fees for saving your video clips in the cloud...and then proceeds to make it clunky and unreliable, all the while forcing constant ads for cloud storage upon the user. One star, would not recommend.